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Develop A Vision Worthy Of Your Compound Self​

It is possible to psychologically toss aside your body and feel as if you are everywhere. It is your Ego that makes you feel skeptical of such statements. Your Ego makes you feel limited by your body. It is your attachment to your body that is limiting you, not your body. Your body creates no barrier between you and the rest of reality. Even your skin is just a porous filter, and not a very good barrier. Your attachment to your body is a contrived blockade. The whole of existence is your body. It is not separate. Your body is really only the closest existence to you. It spreads out to all corners of the Earth—and beyond. When you get rid of your attachment to your individual body, you lose your psychological imprisonment and find that you are everywhere. This is a key task for those seeking to become happy.

When you psychologically surrender your individual self you find your Compound Self—your Sacred Self. This Compound Self is an Ecological Self or a self in relationship to other people, other beings, the Earth, and the universe. Human growth, happiness, healing, and fulfillment cannot be achieved without also healing all relations and the Earth. Humans have deep Earth-rooted-ness. We relate to each other and to the Earth as a whole. This profound connection is so pervasive the Earth can be seen as a lost dimension of the Self—a forgotten component of one’s own complete, compound identity.

To heal—that is to make our selves whole, healthy, and holy—we as a species need to rediscover, befriend, and help save the earthy core of our own being. Spiritually speaking, to heal is to foster the return to a state of unity—that is, unity between not only one’s mind, body, and Spirit but also between one’s self, one’s beloved, and one’s environment.

There is an ecological base to one’s personality. As an individual, one will never be whole if one does not pay attention to one’s body, mind, Spirit, and relationship to the Earth. One needs to claim and enjoy one’s energizing, life-enhancing, and nurturing connection to Nature—thus combine what is Human and what is Nature into what we call “humaNature.” Dr. Cohen’s methodologies are a good way to begin to foster such connectedness.

​To further break down eco-alienation, a person needs to first identify the segment of the world in which she lives as a part of herself. By setting aside the “Ego-self,” and replacing it with a more expansive and encompassing “Eco-Self”—that is, a sense of self connected deeply with all of life—one’s understanding of what constitutes real self-interest will begin to include the protection, preservation, and restoration of the Earth. One of the best ways I have found to bring forth this Eco-self is to mentally paint a picture of yourself as being like a virtuous bodisvhissatva--an altruistic person capable of giving amply, wisely, and sustainably to others.​

To Seeing The Full Size Of Your Self...

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​HumaNatureConnect Activity​

If this is not a day when you prefer to spend time in nature without an agenda, do the following activity:​​​

Start-up Protocol​

Read The Text— Use your literary sense, your mind sense, and your reason sense to read your way towards happiness and sustainability but do not just be an arm-chair traveler. Use your other natural senses as you also spend healthful, fun, and productive time in nature on your way to Gladandgreen Junction.

Attractive Natural Being— With pen and journal in hand, go to a natural area and look around to find a natural being that is attractive to you.

Appreciation and Gratefulness— While admiring your chosen being, appreciate it with your inhalations and give it gratitude with your exhalations.

Consent— Once you find an aspect of nature that is attractive to you continuously for at least ten seconds, think of your continued attraction as your consent to have a connection experience that will lead to your optimal functioning.

The Natural Senses— After gaining consent to enter into a connection experience with the natural being, have available the list of Natural Senses. Mix it up by using at least one radiation sense, one feeling sense, one chemical sense, and one mental sense, to widen your perception, and add variety to your experience.

HumaNatureConnect Activity — After reading the text, finding a natural being, appreciating it, gaining its consent, and scanning the list of natural senses, use your heightened awareness and nature-induced optimal functioning to do the following activity and engage in as many follow-up components as you see fit.

Visioning The Compound Self​

For this activity, create a vision of yourself in your mind as if you were a person of great virtue. More specifically, you are in this vision of yourself a person who has taken a faith vow, a person of compassion, and a person of wisdom. Choose whatever vow suits you. The vow of a bodhisattva would be something like “I vow to save boundless sentient beings, to eliminate endless afflictions, and to learn innumerable doctrines.” You may want to include as part of your vision of your Compound Self a picture of yourself in your mind giving in a way that is unattached--that is, being unattached to yourself as a giver, being unattached to the thing or service being given, and being unattached to the person receiving the gift. Concerning the aspect of your vision as a person of boundless compassion, picture yourself offering compassion without limits or boundaries. Write down ways you plan to become diligent in your giving. Concerning the attainment of wisdom, imagine yourself relying on the validity, soundness, and factualness of direct experience in nature. Consider using the direct experience of nature—as felt through your numerous natural senses—to gain wisdom. Additionally, meditate:

on human impurity as a way to counteract desire;

on compassion as a way to subdue anger;

on dependent origination (by which I mean “this causes that,” such as birth causes aging, etc.);

on how to temper ignorance of the different realms (desire, form, and formlessness, for example);

on how to counteract arrogance; and

on how to be mindful to counteract excessive thinking or “scatteredness” of mind.

Look around you in nature. Contemplate how affects are originated by causes and how everything is impermanent. Write down how such contemplations increased your wisdom.

​​​​Follow-up ProtocolNatural Systems Reflection Process​​

For best results, write down your impressions of this activity in your journal using as many of the following components as you see fit, afterwards, share your interpretations with others.​

Journal Components​

General Description — writing a general description of how you did the activity and what happened.

Freeform — writing, in freeform, what you found attractive about your natural being.

Three Qualities — writing down three qualities you found most attractive about your natural being.

Three Learnings — writing down three things you learned from this activity.

Self-esteem & Trust — writing down how, if at all, this activity changed your self-esteem or trustfulness of Nature.

Changes To Self — writing down what aspects of your self, if any, were changed by this activity.

Honor Yourself — praising yourself and your commitment to making another stop along the Heartwood Path good for yourself and the world.

I’m A Person Who . . . — writing down three different so-called “G/G Statements” using the following format: “This connection experience tells me that I am a person who__________.”

Feelings If Activity Taken — writing down a sentence about how you would feel if you lost your ability to experience this connection.

Two-Word Summary — writing down two words that summarize your response to this activity.​

To see what conversations you can inspire, share your photos and impressions about anything pertaining to your journey down the Heartwood Path on your Facebook page, on Instagram, and on other social media accounts. If you like, include “#heartwoodpath” and “#waypoint(insert waypoint number here)” wherever pertinent

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Your input is vital. Enjoy sharing!

Heartwood Path Axioms:Key Assertions From Waypoint 1.72

1.72.1.One’s body spreads out to all corners of the Earth—and beyond.

1.72.2.The Earth can be seen as a lost dimension of the Self—a forgotten component of one’s own complete, compound identity.

1.72.3.Spiritually speaking, to heal is to foster the return to a state of unity—that is, unity between not only one’s mind, body, and Spirit but also between one’s self, one’s beloved, and one’s environment.

1.72.4.Human growth, happiness, healing, and fulfillment cannot be achieved without also healing all relations and the Earth.

1.72.5.One needs to claim and enjoy one’s energizing, life-enhancing, and nurturing connection to Nature—thus combine what is Human and what is Nature into “humaNature."

Nocturnal Pilgrimage 1.72:Tend To Your Dreams Before Heading To The Next Waypoint

Dream before visiting the next waypoint. Remember not to try to interrupt your dreams. Instead, bring them to life. After doing so, proceed to the next waypoint: “Rightness.”